Corey Haim Biography,Career,Personal Life and Death

About Corey Haim

Corey Ian Haim was a Canadian actor, known for a 1980s Hollywood career as a teen idol. He starred in a number of films, such as Lucas, Silver Bullet, Murphy’s Romance, License to Drive, Dream a Little Dream, and Snowboard Academy. His best-known role was alongside Corey Feldman in The Lost Boys, which made Haim a household name. Haim was born in Toronto, Ontario, the son of Judy, an Israeli-born data processor, and Bernie Haim, who worked in sales. When Haim was 11, his parents divorced after 18 years of marriage. He had an older sister, Carol, and a younger half-brother, Daniel Lee, from his father’s second marriage. Haim was Jewish.

Growing up in Willowdale, Toronto, he was enrolled in drama lessons in improvisation and mime by his mother to help him overcome his shyness, and accidentally fell into the film industry after accompanying Carol to her auditions. Not particularly interested in acting, Haim participated in other activities, such as ice hockey, playing music on his keyboard and collecting comic books. His skills on the ice led to his being scouted for the AA Thunderbirds hockey team. Haim’s time at North York’s Zion Heights Junior High lasted until grade eight, by which point he had begun to make a name for himself as a child actor.

Corey Haim Career

Haim broke into acting at the age of ten, playing the role of Larry in the Canadian children’s educational comedy television series The Edison Twins, which ran from 1982 until 1986. He made his feature film debut in 1984’s thriller Firstborn, starring alongside Sarah Jessica Parker and Robert Downey, Jr. as a boy whose family comes under threat from his mother’s violent boyfriend, played by Peter Weller. Haim’s first day of shooting was with Weller, and he went up to compliment the older actor on his performance. Weller collared Haim, throwing him up against a wall to warn him not to speak to him after a take, and it took three assistants to separate them. Haim later admitted that he was terrified by the experience. Weller later apologized to Haim for the incident and attributed it to method acting, as he was trying to stay in character for the villainous role he was playing. Parker remembered Haim’s staying over many times with her and her then boyfriend Downey Jr., who taught him how to apply hair mousse, saying: “He was naturally gifted and a real charmer—I adored him.”

Haim appeared in minor roles in Secret Admirer and Murphy’s Romance, alongside Sally Field, of whom he was reportedly in awe in 1985. He went on to secure the leading role in Silver Bullet, Stephen King’s feature adaptation of his own lycanthropic novella, playing a paraplegic 10-year-old boy living in Tarker’s Hill, Maine, who warns his uncle (played by Gary Busey) that their town is being terrorized by a werewolf.

Haim began to gain industry recognition, earning his first Young Artist Award as an Exceptional Young Actor starring in a Television Special or Movie of the Week for the NBC movie A Time to Live, in which he played Liza Minnelli’s dying son. While rehearsing on a Montreal street, Minnelli taught Haim how to walk like someone with muscular dystrophy, despite stares from passersby. Following the shoot, Haim decided he would prefer to play boyfriends rather than sons. At the time, Haim’s father was acting as his manager, and turned down River Phoenix’s role in The Mosquito Coast on his behalf. Producer Stanley Jaffe approached him to remark on Haim’s gifts, and recommended that he get an agent in Los Angeles.

In 1986 Haim had his breakout role came , when he starred alongside Kerri Green, Charlie Sheen, and Winona Ryder as the titular character in Lucas, a coming-of-age story about first love and teen angst, which centers on an intelligent misfit who struggles for acceptance after falling for a cheerleader. Haim turned 14 on the set in Chicago, and fell in love with Green, who played his romantic interest in the film. Not realizing she was 18, he asked her out in an elevator.Haim’s unrequited love for Green helped inspire his performance, with the real-life dynamics between them mirrored on-screen. Nevertheless, director David Seltzer noticed that unlike some of his peers, Haim seemed at ease with his burgeoning heartthrob status: “He took it in stride. Not in a negative way, but he was something of a magnet and he knew it.” Haim had read for River Phoenix’s role in Stand By Me while eating lunch in director Rob Reiner’s backyard, and got the part the same day that he was offered Lucas. He later said he would not have changed his decision.

Haim was nominated for an Exceptional Performance by a Young Actor in a Feature Film – Comedy or Drama at the Young Artist Awards for his performance as Lucas, and film critic Roger Ebert gave him a glowing review: “He creates one of the most three-dimensional, complicated, interesting characters of any age in any recent movie. If he can continue to act this well, he will never become a half-forgotten child star, but will continue to grow into an important actor. He is that good.” Haim later remembered, “It was a trip, getting all that attention”. Following Lucas, Haim moved to Los Angeles, and starred in the short-lived 1987 television series Roomies alongside Burt Young.

In 1987, he had a breakthrough when he played one of the major roles in Joel Schumacher’s The Lost Boys in 1987. He later starred in the films License to Drive in 1988 and Dream a Little Dream in 1989, but his output during the nineties onwards was disappointing.

Corey Haim Personal Life

Haim has never married or had any children. He was involved with Who’s the Boss actress Alyssa Milano from 1987 to 1990. Milano and her parents, together with his manager at the time, unsuccessfully tried to get Haim help for his addiction. Feldman in 2011, claimed that a “Hollywood mogul” who abused Haim was to blame for his death .The 2013 memoir by Corey Feldman, Coreyography, details the sexual abuse he and Haim suffered as young actors in the film industry; during the filming of Lucas, Feldman stated that Haim “allowed himself to be sodomized,” and “had been tricked into engaging in a painful session of anal sex by a man on the movie set. The man told Haim that sex between men and boys was normal in Hollywood, saying that ‘all the guys in the entertainment world do it.’ After this experience, Haim proposed the idea to Feldman that they should be engaging in that with each other as well. Feldman turned him down, explaining that was not ‘just what guys do’ and that children should not be having those kinds of interactions with adults.”

In 1988,Lala Sloatman co-starred with Haim in Watchers and Dream a Little Dream (1989), and they dated on and off for two years at the peak of his fame. He was engaged to Baywatch actress Nicole Eggert, with whom he starred in Blown Away in 1992 and Just One of the Girls in 1993. Eggert is credited with helping to save Haim’s life at least once by taking him to hospital to detox during a “narcotic rush”, although she herself has said: “I spent a lot of nights in emergency rooms with him. I don’t think that I saved his life, I just think that I was there for him.”

Haim was in a relationship with Victoria Beckham in 1995, which ended on mutual terms.Haim also had a short engagement to actress Holly Fields in 1996. She was left devastated by his passing and remembers Corey for his giving nature. “I remember one time Corey had spent the day at an autograph signing and even though he was completely broke at the time, when he got paid at the end of the day he went straight to Petco and blew all the cash on dog bones and toys. Then Corey went to an animal shelter in Anaheim and he handed out the bones to the dogs, he personally made sure that each and every dog had a bone and a toy. He was such a sweetheart like that and totally generous – to a fault.”

Corey Haim Photo

Haim was engaged to model Cindy Guyer in 2000. Haim proposed to Guyer two days after they met at a Chicago autograph show. Haim had a year-long relationship with actress Tiffany Shepis, stating in October 2008 that the couple were engaged on May 9, 2009. Shepis moved Haim away to Arizona in 2008, where she “was trying to help him like everybody does, you know? He’s a charming kid with a lot of issues.”

Corey Haim Movies and TV Shows

Title Role Year

Crank High Voltage (Movie)

Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star (Movie)

Big Wolf on Campus (TV Show)

What’s the Story, Mourning Corey  2002

Fever Lake (Movie)

Snowboard Academy (Movie)

Dream A Little Dream 2 (Movie)

Life 101 (Movie)

Demolition High (Movie)

National Lampoon’s Last Resort (Movie)

Fast Getaway 2 (Movie)

The Double O Kid (Movie)

Oh, What A Night (Movie)

Fast Getaway (Movie)

The Dream Machine (Movie)

Prayer Of The Rollerboys (Movie)

Dream A Little Dream (Movie)

License To Drive (Movie)

Watchers (Movie)

Roomies (TV Show)

The Lost Boys (Movie)

Lucas (Movie)

Stephen King’s Silver Bullet (Movie)

Secret Admirer (Movie)

Murphy’s Romance (Movie)

Firstborn (Movie)

Corey Haim Death

On March 10, 2010, after Haim’s mother called 9-1-1, paramedics took Haim from their home to Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, where he was pronounced dead at 2:15 a.m. He was 38 years old.